From July 14-16, the Global Nobel Laureates Assembly on Artificial Intelligence and Nuclear War was held at Borgo Laudato Si’ in the Pontifical Gardens of Castel Gandolfo. The assembly brought together Vatican officials, leaders of major arms control organizations and tech companies, and other specialists in nuclear weapons, AI, and ethics, including 30 Nobel laureates. Inspired by Pope Leo XIV’s new encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, the gathering focused on the pope’s vision of an "Unarmed and Disarming Peace" at a time when AI poses existential threats that could exacerbate the existential threat posed by the worsening nuclear predicament. It culminated in the drafting of The Rome Declaration on AI and nuclear weapons.
The initiative was supported by the Nobel Laureates Assembly for the Prevention of Nuclear War, the Nobel Women's Initiative, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Pugwash, the Yunus Center, the Catholic University of America, the University of Chicago's Existential Risk Laboratory, Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women's Hospital, the University of Notre Dame's Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies in the Keough School of Global Affairs, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and Soka Gakkai, with the Domus Communis Foundation serving as General Secretariat. Several affiliates of the Catholic Peacebuilding Network participated, served on the steering committee, and co-chaired working groups.
For additional reporting, see coverage from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, OSV News, and Vatican News. See also an essay by Tobias Winright, a moral theologian who attended the Assembly.